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be from God , but the visionary revery of enthusiasts i" he , consequently , re * jects it altogether I Now as this is the present state of the case between the Unbeliever and the orthodox Chris * tian , how is it possible , by arguments drawn from the ^ New Testament , where
alone theyture to be sought , to indulge tj * e least expectation of convincing and converting him to Christianity ? No , Sir , it cannot be . We must first prove to him , upon better evidence , what Christianity is in its own native purity , when freed from its corruptions , before we can entertain a reasonable hope of convincing him .
In an inquiry into the truth or falsehood of the history of the Christian revelation , the New Testament is the only authority to which we can appeal , and before we proceed to do so , it will be necessary to settle the point maintained by all reputedly orthodox churches , that the whole is written under divine inspiration , and , there
fore , ought to be received as true ; than this , nothing can be more groundless . For , by whomsoever insisted upon , so manifest to the contrary does it appear , on the slightest and most superficial inquiry , that insisting upon it is nothing short of laying the axe to the root , and demolishing the Christian revelation at a stroke— -rendering it a mere fkble . The New Testament is a
volume containing the writings of many different individuals , collected into the present form , it is supposed , by a council assembled at Laodicea in the fourth century ; this i& , however , in no way material ; but they were certainly selected from a much greater number
of books , written by professing Chris * tians , extant at that time , and from all that appears , many of the books rejected were entitled to as much credit as some of those that were received , and now * form a part of the New Tes «< - tamenfc . The four Gospels profess to
contain an history of the New Cove * nunt , offered by God to mankind through the mission of Jesus , and to record bis life , ihihistry , death and ret ^ urrection . If these four Gospefc had been proved authentic , and had agreed
in the facts and principal circumstanced of the history , the most sceptical in-4 } ui 6 er could have made no rational vobjection to the record from the books themselves ; but so discordant ate they to each other , and mixed with such
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fictions and fables , that , till we separate this foul mixture from the plain and simple truths contained in the authentic record , all attempts to convince an enlightened Unbeliever must be in vain . Should he then ask why four such
discordant histories were selected , he might be told , by a father of the church , Theophylact , that it was because they corresponded to the four cardinal points of the compass , to the four seasons of the year , &c * The contents of all those books have been
received chiefly on the historical testimony of men , many of wh < Mp were remarkably credulous and laperstitious , on which , as it appears to me , undue stress has been laid , and not sufficient regard paid to the internal evidence , and much too little to the
more important evidence from prophecy , which is the evidence of God himself , and must be far above all the testimony of fallible man , and that evidence b y which I hope to afford more satisfaction to the candid Unbeliever .
I believe , in stating the objections of the Unbeliever , I have taken the strongest , and omitted nothing important . In replying , I shall reverse the order and begin with the second objection ; for I hope when I come to demonstrate to him what Christianity is , when freed from the foul mixture with
which it is incorporated , his first objection will be removed , seeing that Christianity is in perfect harmony with the Divine perfections . The second objection is , How is it , if Christianity
be from God , though it has been promulgated almost 1800 years , it is at this time do unsettled and little understood , &c . ? In taking a comprehensive view of the scheme of the
Christian revelation , though we cannot fully understand the means and end of the Divine plan , because to the full comprehension of it our limited faculties are not adequate , yet we can discover that it comes from God , by the sure and unerring testimony of prophecy ,
and that the corruptions which began to take place eo soon after its promulgation , and have continued under different variations to the present time , will be found to establish two import tant facts in proof of the truth of the revelation . The fim i ^ that nothing but the ( Winiscience of Gowl tfould , through the inspiration of the Apo&tles ,
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450 Attempt to distinguish between Genuine and Spurious Christianity
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1820, page 450, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2491/page/6/
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